Attendance-area Shift To Take 6 Years

March 14, 1997|By Margaret Van Duch.

HIGHLAND PARK — Affected parents support a plan that calls for permanently changing the attendance boundaries of 3 percent of the 4,200 students enrolled in North Shore Elementary School District 112, officials said.

The board acted last week to redraw student attendance boundaries so that those living west of U.S. Highway 41 and south of Park Avenue who now attend Indian Trail Elementary School will eventually attend Sherwood Elementary.

The process will take six years to complete so that siblings can attend the same elementary school. Children not yet in school who live in that area will attend Sherwood. The plan was created to balance enrollment districtwide.

It also allows Indian Trail School, now a kindergarten through 3rd-grade building, to become a kindergarten through 5th-grade school, while Elm Place becomes a 6th- through 8th-grade school.

Beginning in the 1998-99 school year, when children enrolled in Sherwood School reach 6th grade, they will attend Elm Place Middle School. These children formerly went on to Edgewood Middle School. Elm Place School, now a 4th- to 8-grade building, will become a 6th- through 8th-grade building.

The district is asking voters to approve a $40 million referendum proposal. The plan calls for a new school to be built in Highwood to replace the existing Oak Terrace School, which is overcrowded and needs major repairs. Other schools would receive infrastructure improvements.